WHITE POPPIES FOR PEACE

This Nov. 11 there will be a new poppy on lapels. Across Canada thousands of people will be wearing WHITE POPPIES.

The WHITE POPPY is a symbol of peace, originally chosen in 1933 by the UK Women's Cooperative Guild to proclaim that peace is something we can all work together to achieve.

In Victoria Marya Nyland of "Canadian Voice of Women for Peace" and "Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice" with the help of friends has made over 1000 poppies and sent them across Canada to other like minded people. Nyland says, "This is a great idea, anyone can make a white poppy and wear it. Together we tell others that "remembering is not enough", we must and we do work actively for peace."

Inspired by Halifax activist Jan Slakov, Nyland has sent out kits of poppies to student groups in Toronto, justice activists in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba women's groups in Halifax, Regina, church and peace activists across our country. Terry Wolfwood of Victoria will launch the WHITE POPPY CAMPAIGN at the National Meeting of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace in Toronto this week. Wolfwood says that the end of the cold war has not ended war or military expansion and spending. She says," We have been in a constant state of war preparedness since the end of WW 2. Governments have learned nothing from the suffering of millions from East Timor to Iraq to Yugoslavia. Canada participates in killing, not only by our active military involvement in USA's wars, but by supporting subsidised selling of arms and military equipment around the world. With little public knowledge or discussion Canada is now committed to a dangerous new expansion of war into space by USA military."

Groups of activists in many cities are making and distributing WHITE POPPIES everywhere, and they encourage concerned Canadians to honour the war dead and those millions who suffer from the devastation of war by working for peace. Wearing a WHITE POPPY says we choose PEACE!

Contacts:
Toronto, Anna Lou Little 416-923-5955
Victoria, BC Marya Nyland ph/fax 250 592-6484 philmar@islandnet.com Terry Wolfwood ph/fax 250-595-7519 bbcf@islandnet.com
Halifax, NS Jan Slakov ph 902-837-4980 jslakov@tartannet.ns.ca